ND recruit got call from above

February 11, 2008|BOB WIENEKE and JEFF CARROLL Tribune Staff Writers

When Notre Dame landed Christchurch, Va., receiver Deion Walker, it did so by holding off some interesting efforts of rival schools. Turns out the coaches from Tennessee and Rutgers arrived for visits via helicopter. The Scarlet Knight contingency actually arrived during the school day, landing on the school's football field. "We were changing classes and a bunch of people just started running toward the football field," Walker said. "It sounded like a bomb was dropping or something like that. "I didn't know they were going to land on the football field. I didn't know they were going to bring a helicopter. I just knew they were coming. It was pretty crazy. It was definitely pretty crazy." Walker, it turns out, was destined for greatness very early in life. He was named after former NFL star Deion Sanders. "We are a very strong religious background, our family," Art Walker, Deion's father and the Christchurch offensive coordinator, said. "We believe that you proclaim excellence early on, it's going to happen. We gave him a name that, during that time period, Deion was in his prime, and we said, 'Hey, we want our son to have a name that's destined for greatness.'" Big splash Up until his senior year at Portland, Oregon's Lincoln High School, defensive end Ethan Johnson played basketball in the winter. This year, recovering from a leg injury in his first football game last fall, the Notre Dame football recruit opted to swim instead. The 6-foot-4 1/2, 270-pounder was heavily involved with the sport from age 6 to 10, and participated in the 50 free, 100 free and the 50 fly this winter in his return to the sport. "My technique was one of the best on the team," he said, "but I just had to build my endurance. Swimming season went by quickly, but it was good for me. "It was just great. Now when I spring and everything, my core doesn't move at all. It helped my core strength a lot and it helped my knee a lot. I can start speed training now." Early start Recruits defensive end Sean Cwynar, along with offensive lineman Trevor Robinson, enrolled at Notre Dame for the spring semester. For Cwynar, a native of McHenry, Ill., the reasons for early enrollment were many. "Get a head start on school, head start on your life, get a head start on football," he said. "I think I was ready to move on." Robinson made an early commitment to Nebraska, but began to look around, specifically at Notre Dame and Michigan, prior to the start of the season. Once Bill Callahan was fired and Lloyd Carr retired, the logical deduction was that Robinson would land in South Bend. "I kind of felt I had kind of rushed into the decision," Robinson, a product of Elkhorn, Neb., said. Spurning the Cornhuskers did raise the eyes of some Big Red fans. Robinson said he heard second-hand that he was ripped a bit on talk radio. "I don't really listen to them anyway," he said. Say what? Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis was the answer a handful of players gave when asked their favorite NFL player. Among those answering Lewis, however, was linebacker David Posluszny. So what's the big deal? Posluszny's brother, former Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny, is now with the Buffalo Bills. David, however, didn't expect there to be any family friction. "He'll probably say that's no big deal," David Posluszny said, "because that's probably his favorite player too." David Posluszny suffered a concussion that caused him to miss a couple games. On the same weekend he was hurt, Paul's rookie season ended with a broken arm. "I personally felt really bad for my parents," David said. The fact that the two had time to talk about their injuries helped. "We were both bored," David said. Horsing around Die-hard Irish fans may recall that sophomore running back Robert Hughes is an avid horse rider. Turns out incoming linebacker Darius Fleming has a similar interest. Hughes helps care for an aunt's two horses, Stormy and Amigo, and actually competed in rodeos starting when he was 8 years old until he was 12. He doesn't compete anymore, but he does ride. A few months ago he took a friend up to the stable and was "just showing off a little bit, and it didn't work out so well." Hughes ended up getting thrown off the horse. Hughes was racing inside an arena, an arena probably not big enough to race. "My horse started to slow down," Hughes recalled. "I guess he didn't have enough room so he started going crazy and bucking. "My worst fall was when I wasyounger. I was riding and the horse stopped so fast. He stopped so fast and put his head down, then I rolled over his head. That was probably my worst fall. "But I've never injured anything badly." Name that tune A call to linebacker Anthony McDonald is met with an operator advising callers to enjoy some music while McDonald is reached. The music? None other than the Notre Dame Victory March. "I've had that ever since I committed," said McDonald, whose father, Mike, played at USC from 1976-79. "Coach Weis loves it whenever he calls. He goes, 'Oh, that gets me so pumped up whenever I hear that.'" Check mate Cornerback Robert Blanton may listen to defensive coordinator Corwin Brown when it comes to football in the fall. But he plans on dispensing lessons of his own when it comes to another passion the two share -- chess. "I'm coming for coach Brown in chess," Blanton said. Blanton said he's been hooked on the classic game since he was a young child. "When I was about 8, my uncle was playing and he kind of taught me," said Blanton, whose father was in the military. "When we were living in Italy, this guy who used to baby-sit me used to play chess, too, and I would play with him. He taught me some moves. "The best thing is playing somebody in chess. Not every game is the same and every player moves different." Packer backer Though defensive line recruit Hafis Williams is from Elizabeth, N.J., he wasn't rooting for the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game, but instead quarterback Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. Williams said he became a Packers fan because of the adversity he has watched Favre overcome throughout his lengthy Hall of Fame career. "When I first watched Brett Favre," Williams said, "the situations he was in when his father died and everything, his wife getting cancer, when you see a person overcome so many things, you look at them in a different way." That being said, there was no doubt about who he was rooting for in Super Bowl XLII -- the hometown team. "I'm not really a Giants fan, my brother is," Williams said. "(But) I knew the Giants were going to win. They didn't even need to blitz. They just needed their four down linemen. My team, the Packers, was at home. "Sometimes you can't stop perfection. But they did it (beating the then-18-0 Patriots). Hats off to them for doing that." Taming Shakespeare Sure football can be dramatic, too. But when nose tackle Brandon Newman says he loves drama, he's talking about something else. The Louisville native has always been a bit of a theater connoisseur, he said, and the last couple years has become involved with his high school's drama department. His current project is William Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew." He plays the character Pettrucio. "There's a place in Louisville called Brown's Theater," Newman said. "A lot of plays come through there. Then in Detroit (where Newman's father lives), they have some plays in Detroit at churches and stuff. "It's fun to sit back and watch because I know how hard it is to perform to get to that point." Newman said he wants to eventually pursue a career in broadcast sports journalism. For now, he'll continue to try to master Shakespeare. "It's a beast," he said. "That language is insane. But I love all that type of stuff."